In May 2018 I submitted oral evidence to the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse. You can listen to the audio here:
Some thoughts on IICSA
The Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up in the wake of the Savile scandal to identify the scale of CSA and safeguarding failures in a range of UK institutions including, of course, boarding schools.
I have mixed feelings about IICSA. I’m grateful that the state belatedly has taken an interest in the wellbeing of young and vulnerable people in institutional settings, and I recognise that its recommendations represent a welcome strengthening of safeguarding procedures. Moreover, I am particularly pleased that the investigators identified the callous disregard shown by a huge range of institutions into allegations of CSA, where the school’s or the teacher’s reputation is considered more important than the child’s wellbeing.
The Report states in section K.4, “No system can guarantee the eradication of child sexual abuse. There are measures that institutions, organisations and settings which work with or come into contact with children should take to help to create a protective environment for children. Key to this is vetting applicants to recruit the right people, putting effective child safeguarding policies and procedures in place, and providing appropriate training and monitoring to ensure those policies are understood and implemented.”
That’s gravy, but it does nothing to prevent predators like Sterling Stover who have been occupying senior positions, perhaps for decades.
Indeed, the Residential schools report identifies ongoing safeguarding problems with regard to school leadership, including owners and governors:
Leadership matters. In many of the schools examined in which children were sexually abused, governance or leadership in respect of safeguarding was poor. Proprietors and governors of schools need to be fit and proper persons to undertake such roles, yet they are not currently eligible to be checked against the list of persons barred from working with children [my emphasis]. Governing bodies need to have members with the knowledge and skills necessary to exercise proper strategic oversight of safeguarding and child protection.
Headteachers need to ensure that there is a positive culture of safeguarding in their schools and be aware of the heightened vulnerability of children to sexual abuse in specific educational settings. Too often, however, the Inquiry saw examples of headteachers who found it inconceivable that staff might abuse their positions of authority to sexually abuse children, were unaware of current statutory guidance or did not understand their role in responding to allegations against staff. Some were more focussed upon protecting the reputation of the school than protecting the interests of the children.
There’s a good response to IICSA’s shortcomings here: https://mandatenow.org.uk/iicsas-final-report-recommendations-fail-to-address-its-own-reasoning/
Since around 2018 I have been making persistent, insistent and consistent demands to meet or at least speak to the governors and safeguarding lead at Bruern Abbey School to discuss my concerns. These requests have been equally consistently ignored or rebuffed.
Will IICSA lead to meaningful, long-lasting and comprehensive change in the culture of residential schools? I can only hope that it will. In the meantime, I have to take the stomach-churning risk of telling the truth here, on this website…with all the consequences that will entail. Only one thing is certain: I’m not going to spend the next three decades wondering whether I’ve done enough for generations of Bruern boys.